A Complete Guide to VoIP for UK Businesses

Your phone connects to your router

Your phone will connect to your switch or router located in your local area network (LAN), the network that links the computers and peripheral equipment around you.

Your IP phone talks to your VoIP service provider

When you place a call, your IP phone communicates with your VoIP service provider, connecting you to the desired party by establishing the call and exchanging data packets.

Your voice is converted into digital information

Your VoIP phone converts digital signals into audio that you can hear. You can use devices other than phones, including your desktop, laptop, or tablet—as long as you’re connected to the internet.

Save on Your Communication Costs

The outstanding benefit of VoIP is its price. The bottom line is essential for every business, regardless of its size. Business owners must consider every cost-saving opportunity—and adopting a VoIP system is a no-brainer.

By switching to VoIP, companies can reduce monthly telecom costs by more than 50%. On average, a landline phone system costs businesses $50 per line every month. In contrast, VoIP plans are available for $20 per line or less.

Improve Call Quality

61% of customers have stopped doing business with a brand due to poor customer service. One of the easiest ways to improve your service is to eliminate echoes, delays, and background noise during customer calls.

VoIP can lower your phone bill by more than half of what it is right now. A cheaper phone plan means worse call quality, right? Wrong. VoIP calls are known for being crisp and clear, getting rid of latency issues, lag, or call dropouts. As long as you have a fast and stable internet connection, you never need to worry about leaving customers less than impressed.

Gain Access to Entreprise-Grade Features

An internet-based phone system lays the foundation for advanced features such as an auto attendant, call routing, voicemail to email, and much more, allowing small businesses to project the image of an established company and large entreprises to develop a local, approachable presence.

For example, regardless of where your company is located, VoIP phone services allow your team members to adopt any area code, presenting you as a local—and trustworthy—business. On the other hand, if you’re a small business that wants to seem more established, setting up an auto attendant will make it sound as if you are a company with multiple departments.

Get Remote-Ready

Cost-savings aside, total portability is one of the biggest advantages of VoIP for business. Cloud-based VoIP phone services allow your employees to make and receive calls from anywhere, laying the foundation for a robust work-from-home programme.

87% of people use a mobile phone to communicate at work at least once a week. In the face of an increasingly mobile workforce, remote accessibility gives your teams everything they need to remain productive regardless of where they are. Because softphones aren’t hardware devices but a downloadable app, your team members can use any internet-connected device they want, cutting the cost of additional equipment.

Secure Sensitive Data

In the age of remote work, data security is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have. A last-minute global transition to 100% digital has left many businesses struggling to keep up with cyberattackers—and the demand for personally identifiable information (PII) has never been greater.

Keep your business protected from all angles by working with a trustworthy VoIP provider that mitigates security threats using industry best practises, including encryption and advanced identity management. Hosted VoIP providers work around the clock to secure your network so that you don’t have to.

Scale on Your Terms

Planning for success means planning ahead. Given a choice, every business owner would prefer a phone system that grows in tandem with their business. By doing away with expensive hardware, a cloud-based VoIP solution lets you scale in an instant.

Whether you’re preparing for a spike in demand over the holiday season or you’re planning on opening a new call centre, VoIP relies on a user-friendly interface to fulfil your preferences with the touch of a button, eliminating the need to purchase and instal new hardware or maintain it.

You need a high-speed internet connection

Your call quality will only ever be as good as your internet connection. That means that if you’ve already got a reliable, high-speed internet connection, there’s nothing to worry about. So, how do you know if your internet connection is good enough to support VoIP services?

First, we need to know how many concurrent calls you plan on making, which will inform how much bandwidth your business needs. The next step would be to run a bandwidth test on your current network.

Keep in mind that adopting a VoIP system won’t affect your internet speeds. Moreover, VoIP doesn’t use as much bandwidth as you might expect. A rule of thumb is that each device should have at least 100 kbps of upload speed available.

Location tracking becomes difficult

In the unlikely event that one of your employees finds themselves dialling 911, they may need to tell the operator their location. This is because VoIP’s total portability makes it challenging for third parties to track down where exactly a call originated from.

While 99% of callers won’t need your GPS information, make sure your employees are aware of the limitations of VoIP when calling emergency services. Calls placed over the internet carry no GPS data or cell tower information.

You may need to upgrade outdated phone handsets

VoIP technology makes analogue phones pretty much obsolete. That means you’ll likely want to upgrade any outdated handsets. But because VoIP systems can operate digitally as a mobile app or within a browser, your employees can simply download your softphone on any internet-connected device of their choice, cutting the cost of additional equipment.

No equipment required

VoIP setup costs can be as low as $0. That’s because there’s no need to purchase or instal business phones, copper wiring, or PBX hardware. A broadband connection is all you need to power a reliable and robust business phone system. This also eliminates the need for ongoing expenses such as taxes, repair, and maintenance fees.

Add features at no extra cost

Features like call transfer, call queuing, and group ringing are supported by traditional PBX systems. But there’s a catch. While a standard PBX system can support these features, they come in the form of add-ons that you have to pay for separately. In contrast, VoIP phone services include many of the same features at no extra cost.

Local presence without the calling costs

VoIP calls are cheaper compared to calls made through the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN). Why is this the case? Much of it has to do with how quickly internet speeds have improved and data costs have dropped. For businesses that operate globally, VoIP can save them as much as 90% on international calls.

Can I Call Without Limits?

Some VoIP providers offer limitless calling, allowing you to make and receive unlimited calls across the world. This is essential for businesses that operate internationally. Of course, make sure your provider offers proven reliability with minimal downtime.

What Will Setup Be Like?

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have struggled to implement a robust work-from-home solution fast enough to maintain business continuity. Every business owner is looking for a quick and easy setup that doesn’t leave them wanting more when it comes to functionality.

Ask your VoIP provider about their setup process. Can you expect to be fully operational in a matter of minutes or days? How much technical knowledge will you need to hit the ground running? Which features will be ready to go from day one?

Will Your Platform Grow With My Business?

Any VoIP phone system worth investing in offers total scalability. That means you should be able to activate and remove lines in an instant. It’s also a good idea to check whether you can connect your CRM and other existing third-party apps.